When Love Affair Withered Away

"Don't be afraid, Kid. No matter how others treat you, I, your wild older sister, will always protect you. Let this music box be the proof," she stated.

Her way of comforting me was so pure and straightforward that it shattered my helplessness. At that moment, I fell for Crystal completely for the whole ten years.

I still remember the promise she made at that time, but the person who swore it has long forgotten.

I held the broken pieces of the music box in my palms, stared at them one last time and tossed them into the trash.

If that was how it was, then the promise that I had with Crystal, I did not need it anymore. Never again.

Crystal did not come home that night.

The next morning, after shipping my belongings back to my family’s house, I went to the office to print my resignation letter and planned to deliver it to her personally.

On my way there, Crystal sent me a message. It said, "Baby, I spoke too harshly yesterday. I went back to the company to work until late so I crashed in the office. I just woke up and I'll be home soon."

I looked at her empty office and placed my resignation letter on her desk. I did not reply to her messages. Instead, I exited the chat box and removed her from my favorite contacts.

Moments later, a friend request popped up. It was from Thomas. As soon as I accepted, a message appeared in my dialog box.

“Crystal, don’t forget to grab more condoms when you’re back from the convenience store! We ran out of it last night. You were just too wild.…”

The text ended with a string of suggestive emojis.

Two minutes later, he retracted the message and wrote a message inside, "Ahh … Mr. Davis … I had accidentally sent the wrong messages. You didn’t see anything, right?”

A wave of bitterness washed over me. I did not bother playing along with his act, but instinctively clicked into his social media profile.

Photo after photo scrolled past, each post played out like a film before my eyes.

Turned out, he had been back in the city for a month. In that month, Crystal had taken the opportunity to accompany him to various destinations.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, Mount Fuji in Tokyo.…

All the places I had begged her to visit with me over the years.

She would always hug me and promise, “Sure, sure, once work calms down, I’ll take you there.”

I had waited for eight years for her to make time but she never got free time for me.

However, in just one month Thomas came back here and she suddenly was not busy anymore.

Every place the two of them visited, she would pose for countless photos with him.

In all our years together, she had never once allowed me to point my camera at her.

“If my brother finds out I stole his best friend, that brat will probably curse me to death.”

“Baby, you’re my secretary. Office romances attract gossip and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

But when you truly love someone, how could you hide it?

I was a fool. For eight years, Crystal had kept our relationship a secret. I should have known a long time ago that she never loved me at all!

I was about to exit the app when Thomas’s latest post popped up.

It was a photo. Its background was a large bed. Thomas was topless. He was pinning a woman beneath him and their fingers intertwined.

It was a short video and when I clicked on it, a familiar voice filled the room.

"Thom …."

The same breathy sound that Crystal had whipped countless times in my ears, "Tom."

Tom and Thom sounded the same.